Designations

The concept of the constellation was known to exist during the Babylonian period. Ancient sky watchers imagined that prominent arrangements of stars formed patterns, and they associated these with particular aspects of nature or their myths. Twelve of these formations lay along the band of the ecliptic and these became the basis of astrology.[38] Many of the more prominent individual stars were also given names, particularly with Arabic or Latin designations.
As well as certain constellations and the Sun itself, stars as a whole have their own myths.[39] To the Ancient Greeks, some "stars", known as planets (Greek ???????? (planetes), meaning "wanderer"), represented various important deities, from which the names of the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were taken.[39] (Uranus and Neptune were also Greek and Roman gods, but neither planet was known in Antiquity because of their low brightness. Their names were assigned by later astronomers.)
Circa 1600, the names of the constellations were used to name the stars in the corresponding regions of the sky. The German astronomer Johann Bayer created a series of star maps and applied Gre

k letters as designations to the stars in each constellation. Later a numbering system based on the star's right ascension was invented and added to John Flamsteed's star catalogue in his book "Historia coelestis Britannica" (the 1712 edition), whereby this numbering system came to be called Flamsteed designation or Flamsteed numbering.[40][41]
Under space law, the only internationally recognized authority for naming celestial bodies is the International Astronomical Union (IAU).[42] A number of private companies sell names of stars, which the British Library calls an unregulated commercial enterprise.[43][44] However, the IAU has disassociated itself from this commercial practice, and these names are neither recognized by the IAU nor used by them.[45] One such star naming company is the International Star Registry, which, during the 1980s, was accused of deceptive practice for making it appear that the assigned name was official. This now-discontinued ISR practice was informally labeled a scam and a fraud,[46][47][48][49] and the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs issued a violation against ISR for engaging in a deceptive trade practice.